What Martha Stewart Taught Me About Success
Hellbender chef Yara Herrera on how Martha Stewart inspires her all-encompassing understanding of what it means to deliver hospitality.
13 Questions with Martha Stewart
In the Resy Questionnaire, we quiz some of the most exciting people working in the restaurant industry. What’s your favorite meal from childhood? Your favorite cookbook? What do you value most in restaurants?
In this edition, we spoke to the one and only Martha Stewart, bestselling author, prolific gardener, and hostess extraordinaire, fresh off her Dream Team Dinner collaboration with Yara Herrera at Hellbender in Queens, New York.
What’s a restaurant you’ve always dreamed about going to?
I dream of going to Masa every week, and I go there often. But I dream about going even more.
What restaurant dish do you still dream about?
For a sweet treat, the sweet cream cake from Casa Cipriani, and the lemon meringue tart from Harry Cipriani.
What is your dream for the restaurant industry?
Since I am now a restaurateur in my own right, I have lots of ideas, like my own coffee shop, my own café, and having several more outposts of my Bedford restaurants around the country, serving the type of delicious cuisine we serve in Las Vegas at the Paris Hotel. We are opening a second location at Foxwoods in Connecticut later this year.
Favorite thing you’ve ever cooked?
I really enjoy making pastry, and baking fresh fruit pies and tarts.
What pantry items would you bring on a desert island?
Chickens for eggs, cows for milk, a vineyard for wine, and a lifetime supply of sugar and flour.
Your favorite cookbook?
I have way too many favorites to choose just one.
Your drink of choice?
I love to brew my own iced tea. If I’m having a cocktail, it’s an ice-cold Martha-tini made with Żubrówka vodka, served with a wedge of orange.
Favorite food movie or TV show?
My new show with José Andrés that just premiered on NBC – “Yes, Chef!” – of course!
What restaurant industry person do you admire the most?
I have always been a big fan of Nobu Matsuhisa, but I also adore Daniel Boulud, Jean-Georges Vongerichten, Masa Takayama, and José Andrés.
The greatest restaurant experience of your life so far?
I’ve been so lucky and able to eat at some of the greatest restaurants in the world, I would be hard put to choose just one.
Your favorite meal from childhood?
Sunday lunch at Elm Place in Nutley, N.J., my family home growing up.
If you could eat through a country for a day, where would you go?
Japan.
